This invention relates generally to article surveillance tags and, more particularly, to the deactivation of article surveillance tags at checkout stations.
Self-checkout stations at grocery stores and other retail stores are well known. The stations permit a consumer to scan articles for purchase so the station may identify the articles and a corresponding price. When the consumer indicates all articles for purchase have been presented to the terminal, a sub-total is accumulated, any taxes and discounts are computed, and a total amount due is displayed for the consumer. The station then allows the consumer to select a payment method. The station presents menu selections to the consumer so funds may be transferred to the retailer""s account. Upon confirmation of payment, the articles are released to the consumer.
A self-checkout station typically includes a terminal, a scanner and scales for reading unit price codes (UPC) and determining article weight, a cashier keypad and display, a POS terminal for payment entry, a receipt printer, a change unit, and a checkout area for holding articles once they have been scanned. The terminal also includes a display, a processor, memory, programmed instructions, and data peripherals to control the operations of the station. The programmed instructions may contain modules for querying for article prices, computing totals and performing other functions related to the purchase of articles through a self-checkout station. Some checkout stations may also include a security application program that uses data from sensors such as scales to reduce the likelihood that the consumer leaves without scanning all of the articles or exchanges scanned articles with more expensive articles that have not been scanned.
Typically, two or more self-checkout stations are located proximately to one another with a checkout attendant station nearby. The checkout attendant may help consumers who may be using a self-checkout station for the first time, who are having trouble with scanning an article, or who are having difficulty with a payment method or the like. That is, the primary duty of the attendant is to provide assistance to customers who are using the self-checkout stations so they are efficiently used and quickly process customers with their checkouts. Although these attendants are available to assist in security monitoring, such duties actually detract from the performance of their primary duty.
In some retail stores, electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems are used to detect the unauthorized removal of merchandise from the store. EAS systems include surveillance tags that may be attached to articles of merchandise and detection devices that sound an alarm upon detection of a tag. The detection devices are typically located at the doorways of the retail store to reduce the likelihood that the articles are removed from the store without authorization. For articles bearing such tags that are properly purchased at a self-checkout counter, the consumer may present the articles to a checkout attendant who either deactivates the tag or mechanically removes the tag from the article. The removal or deactivation of the tag from a purchased article allows the consumer to proceed past the detection device located at a store exit without activation of an alarm unless the consumer has concealed articles having tags for which the consumer did not pay.
The tags that may be attached to articles of merchandise are well-known and include radio frequency tags, magnetic tags, microwave tags, and resonant tuned tags. The radio frequency, microwave, and resonant tuned tags typically include a fusible link that may be disconnected to deactivate the tag by altering the characteristics of the electrical circuit in a tag. At least two known methods are used to rupture fusible links. One method radiates the tag with radio frequency energy at a power level sufficient to rupture the fusible link while the other method uses a deactivation frequency to open the fusible link in a multi-frequency resonant tag circuit. These methods may be used to deactivate a tag that uses a radio frequency circuit. Other tags may use magnetic components and appropriate degaussing methods may be used to deactivate such tags. Typically, magnetic tags include two magnetic circuit components and one of the magnetic circuit components may be selectively magnetized or degaussed. A magnetic EAS tag deactivator may degauss or magnetize the circuit component that has the alterable magnetic characteristic so that the tag no longer responds to the tag interrogation signal emitted by a tag detection device. Of course, tags may also be deactivated by methods that physically remove a tag from an article.
Previously known systems have included tag deactivators in checkout counters for deactivating EAS tags during checkout. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,135 discloses a bagging area in which a scanner is proximately mounted at the opening of the bag well and a tag deactivator is located at the bottom of the bagging area. When the checkout attendant reaches a hand towards the bag rails extending outwardly from the bag well to remove the bag being filled, a capacitor in a circuit associated with the bag rail senses the attendant""s approach and triggers the deactivator. In response, the energized deactivator applies a signal that deactivates the EAS tags attached to articles in the bag above the tag deactivator. U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,290 requires the deactivator to include an indicia reader so that an identification code located on the EAS tag being deactivated may be compared to an identification code read from a hanger tag. This comparison verifies that the tag being deactivated is indeed the one attached to the last article scanned. U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,951 is directed to an integrated barcode scanner and tag deactivator that may be coupled to one another to make sure that the data capturing and tag deactivation functions are completed before an article is given to a consumer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,125 describes an EAS tag detector that generates a signal to activate an EAS tag deactivator in response to detection of an EAS tag and that helps one orient the EAS tag for effective deactivation. U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,290 discloses a system that selectively enables EAS tag deactivation so tag deactivation cannot occur until the bar code corresponding to the tagged article has been scanned at the self-checkout station. The enabling of the EAS deactivation device requires correspondence between a symbol read from a hanger tag and a symbol read from the surveillance tag. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 6,333,692 is directed to a system that uses data scanned from an article to query a database and determine whether a surveillance tag should be deactivated. The deactivator is energized in response to the database indicating the scanned article should have a surveillance tag. Deactivations are counted and discrepancies between the number of tagged articles scanned and the number of deactivations performed is sent to an in-store processor for storage and audit processing.
While all of these patents address the deactivation of EAS tags after the articles to which the tags are attached are scanned for product information, they do not facilitate deactivation of EAS tags on articles identified in the product database as not having an EAS tag. For example, the system of the ""692 patent activates the EAS deactivator in response to a database record that indicates that a scanned article should have an EAS tag so it may evaluate whether the expected EAS tag deactivation occurred. Consequently, the attachment of an EAS tag to an article that is not identified by the product database has having an EAS tag would not activate the EAS deactivator and a mismatch condition would result. The mismatch would occur because the deactivation of the EAS tag in this scenario would not be expected so the actual deactivations would be greater than the expected number of deactivations. The system of the ""780 patent constructs a product database from surveillance tags prior to placement of the articles in the retail space of a store. Consequently, only articles to which EAS tags are attached have data records in the database and the processing of articles without EAS tags at the checkout station of the ""780 patent occurs without reference to data stored in the product database. Thus, previously known checkout stations that interrogate a product database data regarding attachment of a surveillance tag to a scanned article, do not facilitate deactivation of EAS tags on articles for which no corresponding database record is returned or surveillance tag is expected.
While some vendors attach surveillance tags before sending them to a retail establishment, others do not. After receiving articles that do not have attached EAS tags, the retailer may attach surveillance tags. The decision to apply surveillance tags to an article may be affected by several considerations. For example, the number of units stocked in the store, the feasibility of physically attaching a tag to the article, or the amount of shrinkage occurring for the article may affect the decision to attach tags to the article. These and other such factors are considered by a retailer before the retailer determines that the expense of attaching surveillance tags and of dealing with their removal at checkout is worthwhile. In some instances, a department manager may make the decision without initiating the procedure to update the product database to include that information or may implement the decision before the database is updated. Consequently, systems that use a surveillance tag indicator stored in the product database to activate an EAS tag deactivator do not enable the EAS deactivator for the EAS tags attached to such articles. The EAS tag deactivation for the surveillance tags attached to articles not having a corresponding surveillance tag indicator in the database require offline processing during checkout. Systems that count discrepancies between data elements that indicate a surveillance tag should be attached to an article and the number of actual occurrences of EAS tag deactivations simply report the discrepancy without updating the product database.
In some previously known POS transaction systems, articles having labels with barcodes or other indicia that may be read by a barcode scanner may not have a corresponding data record in the product database. To process the article through checkout, the checkout operator enters a price through the checkout station terminal so checkout processing may continue. Likewise, the operator may visually detect a surveillance tag on an article and manually activate an EAS tag deactivator for processing the EAS tag. However, neither the price data entry nor the visual detection of the EAS tag results in updates to the product database. Consequently, subsequent scans for other occurrences of the article require another entry of the price data or offline processing of the EAS tag.
What is needed is a way of processing articles through checkout that have attached EAS tags without a corresponding surveillance tag indicator in the product database.
What is needed is a way of updating a product database to modify a surveillance tag indicator to indicate an EAS tag is expected with a scanned article.
What is needed is a way of updating a product database with data for a scanned article that has no corresponding data record in the database.
The above-noted limitations of previously known checkout stations with EAS tag deactivators have been overcome by a system and method that operate in accordance with the principles of the present invention. The system of the present invention comprises a product database, a surveillance tag interrogator, and a database modifier. The database stores product records corresponding to articles sold in a store and the product records include a surveillance tag indicator. The surveillance tag interrogator generates a surveillance tag present signal in response to detection of a surveillance tag attached to an article submitted for processing at a checkout station. The database modifier is communicatively coupled to the database and the interrogator so it may modify the surveillance tag indicator of a product record in response to the surveillance tag present signal generated by the interrogator. The database modifier, in response to the EAS tag present signal, may set the EAS tag indicator of a product record corresponding to an article being processed for checkout to indicate an EAS tag is expected for the article thereafter. Subsequent queries of the product database using the barcode or other product identification data for the article retrieve a product record with an active surveillance tag indicator. Thus, the system of the present invention updates the surveillance tag indicators of product records in the database to correspond to the detection of EAS tags attached to articles processed at the checkout station.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the interrogator is associated with the EAS deactivator so that the interrogator detects an EAS tag in the EAS deactivator. The detection of EAS tags in the EAS deactivator may be used to detect articles that a consumer may put in the deactivator after visually determining the presence of the EAS tag during checkout. If the surveillance tag indicator of the product record retrieved from the product database with a query incorporating the product identification data obtained by the scanner does not indicate the article should have an EAS tag attached, the database modifier updates the indicator to an active state.
In another embodiment, the interrogator may be associated with the bag well of the checkout station so that the interrogator is located proximately the bag well and detects an active EAS tag in the bag well. This system, preferably, includes a prompter for providing a message to the checkout station operator to place the article with the EAS tag in the deactivator. In response to the EAS tag present signal from the interrogator associated with the bag well, the database modifier updates the surveillance tag indicator for the product record corresponding to the product identification data obtained from the article being processed for checkout.
Preferably, the system of the present invention may be implemented with a checkout station having an interrogator associated with the bag well and another interrogator associated with the EAS deactivator. This system allows the database modifier to activate surveillance tag indicators by setting them to an active state in response to EAS tag present signals from either interrogator. The inclusion of a prompter enables the checkout station operator to be notified of the need for an EAS tag deactivation via an active surveillance tag indicator in a retrieved product record or detection of an EAS tag in the deactivator or the bag well. Preferably, the prompter that may be used in a system incorporating the present invention may be an annunciator, or a display, such as the one typically associated with the terminal of a self-checkout station, or a combination of both.
Preferably, the system of the present invention includes a scanner for reading product identification data from an article being processed for checkout. The product identification data may be used to query the product database for a product record corresponding to the product identification data. In response to no product record being returned, the database modifier generates a product record corresponding to the product identification data read by the scanner. The price data for the generated record may be obtained from data entry at the checkout station and the surveillance tag indicator of the record may be set to an active state if an interrogator generates an EAS tag present signal. Thus, the system of the present invention may be used to generate product records for articles placed in the store before their corresponding data are entered into the product database.
The method of the present invention includes generating a surveillance tag present signal in response to detection of a surveillance tag attached to an article being processed at a checkout station and modifying a surveillance tag indicator in a product record of a product database in response to the surveillance tag present signal. The generation of the surveillance tag present signal may be generated by interrogating a surveillance tag in an EAS deactivator associated with the checkout station or by interrogating a surveillance tag in the bag well of the station. The surveillance present signal may also be used for prompting an operator to perform a surveillance tag deactivation for an active surveillance tag. The prompting action may be in the form of an audible message, a displayed message, or a combination of an audible and visible message.
It is an object of the present invention to enable checkout processing of articles to which surveillance tags are attached despite the lack of an active surveillance tag indicator in the corresponding data record for an article stored in a product database.
It is an object of the present invention to update a product database with data for a scanned article that has no corresponding data record in the database by generating a product record that indicates detection of an active surveillance tag attached to an article corresponding to the product record.
These and other advantages and features of the present invention may be discerned from reviewing the accompanying drawings and the detailed description of the invention.